In a very literal sense, all of the human vices over the millennia are now confronting internet usersdaily, jumping out at them from the screen, and in many cases going on to wreak havoc in theirpersonal lives.

e technology experts at TAG, Technology Awareness Group, describe the pros and cons of thevarious ﬁltering and monitoring solutions available to the public – and remind us that no solutionis perfect.

C o n t e n t s

T e c h n o l o g y A l P i T o r a h

I

t is no coincidence that Klal Yisrael has gathered asone to unite in facing the challenges of modern tech-nology at precisely this moment. We stand in the ﬁnaldays before our annual renewal of

Kabbalas HaTorah

.Our unanimous declaration of



over 3,300years ago was our deﬁning moment as a nation. Yet

Chazal

(

Shabbos

88a) point out that generations later,Klal Yisrael was moved to rea

ﬃ

rm their dedication toHashem and His Torah.



roughout our generations of wandering since weentered this long and bitter

golus,

our nation has beenfaced with many trials. Only by standing together andremaining ﬁrmly entrenched in the faith of our fathershave we persevered. Yet today we ﬁnd ourselvesthreatened by a test of frightening magnitude, one thathas already done untold harm to our people. It is an un-seen adversary that jeopardizes our very existence.Once again we are standing at a crossroads, a deﬁningmoment in the history of our nation. Our

Gedolim

haverisen to the challenge and called upon us, the rank andﬁle of Klal Yisrael, to join them in taking up the ﬁght. Andon a personal level, this is a deﬁning moment in the livesof each one of us. By joining the a

sifa

we are rea

ﬃ

rmingour dedication to the principles of the Torah, and we arerenewing our proud rallying call of



We areshowing the world yet again that through our dedicationwe are truly worthy of being the nation of Hashem andthe bearers of his Torah.In the words of the

e dark-ness will cover the land and gloom over the nations, buton you will Hashem shine and His honor will we visibleupon you.” We are at a time when the world is coveredwith darkness, when it eagerly embraces a harmful anddestructive path. Yet Klal Yisrael is prepared to standapart, to buck the trend and ﬁght the current. For this,the

Navi

promises us, we will earn that our paths be il-luminated by the light of Hashem and we will merit thatHis glory will rest upon us.

To place this evening in its proper perspective,the following critical points must be underscored:

Internet Solutions

It must be made clear before we introduce the varioussolutions that will be o

ﬀ

ered for the internet, such as ﬁl-ters and blocks, that these are not true “solutions.”



eydo not solve the internet problem.



e only real “solution”is to ban all access to the internet. And that, in fact, is whateach of us who can do so must do.A yeshiva

bachur

, kollel fellow or a

melamed

Torah, allof whom are not required to have internet for their job,should not own or come in contact with any devices ca-pable of accessing the internet — with or without ﬁlters.



ere is no excuse for using the internet where it is notabsolutely necessary.

Internet access must be viewed as a “

b’dieved

,” an ab-solute last resort where there is no other possible means.



e only reason we discuss ﬁlters and other solutions al-together is to accommodate businesspeople and the like



Welcome to what promises to be the mostmomentous evening of your life!

We wish to thank

Zman

magazine forresearching and writing this very informativeand important publication, produced especiallyfor this historical

asifa.

Zman

’s well-deservedreputation for in-depth, quality, rivetingarticles is plainly evident in this work and isthe reason we chose them to represent ourinterests at this ground-breaking event.